Medicine has never had as many effective treatments for cancers, but neither has the cost of these treatments ever been so high. Vanderbilt University Professor Stacie B. Dusetzina (left) joined Health Policy Professor Alyce Adams for a discussion moderated by Paul Costello (right) about the policies that can prevent cancer patients from having to choose between health and bankruptcy.

Both professors known the issue intimately as they have helped a parent navigate the highly expensive and confusing world of cancer care.

Dusetzina told the audience many older Americans don’t realize Medicare doesn’t cover costly cancer drugs so could pay as much as $3,000 for a bottle of cancer meds — leading to 30% of patients not picking up their prescriptions. Other industrialized nations conduct long-term cost effectiveness analyses of new drugs and then tell the pharmaceutical companies to keep the prices affordable — or they won’t purchase them on a national scale.